


read my lips

by helsinkibaby



Category: Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Het, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-30
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2020-03-30 00:28:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19031047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: After Michael rescues Pike, the talk is inevitable.





	read my lips

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A Moment in Time](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18550891) by [Alethia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alethia/pseuds/Alethia). 



> So Alethia wrote “A Moment in Time” and I thought Tilly would have much to say and this should have been posted weeks ago but then I had to bury my father in law, so...

“We have got to talk.” 

Not in the least bit surprised that Tilly was the first one who had come to find her, Michael half turned to meet her friend, raising an eyebrow in greeting. Long experience had taught her that it was better to wait for Tilly to speak first - long experience had taught her that Tilly often didn’t give a chance for anything else - but Tilly’s eyes slid off Michael to the view on the other side of the glass window and froze there. Her jaw dropped open as her eyes went wide. “Oh my God.” 

Michael followed her gaze, saw that not much had changed in the couple of seconds she’d been looking at Tilly. Doctor Culber was still standing beside the bed, trusty tricorder in hand, brow furrowed in concentration as he ran every test known to man - and quite possibly some that weren’t - on his patient. 

“Oh my God,” Tilly said again. “You really did it.” Her hand closed over Michael’s elbow, squeezing tightly. Michael looked at her sharply, about to ask her to stop, but Tilly’s eyes were fixed on the tableau on the other side of the glass and Michael was pretty sure she didn’t even realise what her hand was doing. “You went and got Captain Pike.” 

Almost as if he could hear her, Pike’s eyes moved in their direction, his lips twitching in a half smile as he laid eyes on Tilly. The sight made Michael want to smile too, at least until Tilly’s grip tightened even more to the point where it was actually painful. “Tilly-” she began and as if the sound of her voice galvanised Tilly into action, the next thing Michael knew, she was being propelled across the room to a slightly more secluded corner. 

“You went back and got him?” Tilly’s voice was a shocked hiss. “Why? Why would you possibly do that?” 

She dropped Michael’s elbow to gesture wildly and Michael looked down as she pressed her lips together. “I saw what happened to him-” she began but Tilly didn’t let her finish. 

“So did I. ‘Captain Christopher Pike was killed when a baffle plate rupture lead to an explosion having saved several cadets from certain death.’” She recited the words as if from memory, proof - if Michael had needed it - that she had indeed changed the timeline. Michael fought very hard to stay upright as the room swam around her. It took all of her considerable Vulcan training to level her gaze on Tilly and speak. 

“That’s not what I read.” 

Tilly’s long, red ponytail swished in consternation. “What do you mean?” 

“What I read...” Michael kept her voice low. “Was that he didn’t die in the explosion. Instead, the resulting delta ray radiation left him scarred and paralysed beyond help of medical science. He was left in a brainwave operated wheelchair, unable to speak...” Her stomach turned over at the memory, the horror of the realisation that he’d known that was his fate for so many years, had accepted it for the good of the universe. 

“Oh my God.” Tilly wasn’t shocked any more. Appalled was much more like it, her face echoing Michael’s feeling exactly. “That’s... that’s awful.” 

“I couldn’t let that happen to him. I couldn’t let his life... all the good he’s done... I couldn’t let it end like that.” She wrapped her arms around her middle, glancing across the room to reassure herself that he was really there, that he was safe. “I know it was selfish... and illogical...”

“It was love.” Tilly’s voice had turned soft, amazed, and when Michael looked back at her, the other woman had her hands clasped over her mouth, which only served to emphasise her wide eyes. “You love him.” 

Michael’s heart quickened. It was the first time she’d been confronted by them and although she’d been thinking them for quite some time, hearing them aloud was... different somehow. “Tilly-”

“Oh don’t Tilly me, you know I’m right!” Her friend stared at her. “You know I’m right.” 

Michael pressed her lips togetiher again, sighed as she gave in to the inevitable. “Yes. You are.” 

Tilly actually gasped, her hands flying up to her lips again. She probably hadn’t expected Michael to give up so easily. “How long?” she demanded when she recovered her voice. “Was this going on before we went through the wormhole?” She gasped again. “Was there Hot Captain Sex that I missed?” 

She was so earnest, so sincere, that Michael actually laughed. “No, Tilly, there was not.” 

“But there will be.” Tilly grinned and Michael opened her mouth to deny it, then promptly shut it again. The noise Tilly was in response to that was at a pitch barely audible to human ears and her grin widened to previously unseen proportions. “I will want details.”

“As will Starfleet, I’m sure.” Both women jumped at the sound of Saru’s voice, neither of them having heard him enter Sickbay. “Not of the ‘Hot Captain Sex,’ I hasten to add.” It was hard to tell if the Kelpian’s expression was one of disgust or amusement. “But certainly of the circumstances that have brought Captain Pike here.” He tilted his head. “I see many more interviews with the Temporal Police in our future.” 

“Oh, man.” Tilly tolled her eyes and actually groaned. “Like they didn’t hate us enough already.” Catching Michael’s eye, she shook herself. “But this, this is totally worth it. Like totally.” 

“Captain?” Doctor Culber’s voice made them all turn and Michael felt a smile coming to her face as she saw Captain Pike - Chris, she reminded herself - standing beside him. “Thank you for coming down,” the doctor continued. “I thought you’d like to know that Captain Pike is in full health.” 

“That is good to know, Doctor.” Saru nodded, clasping his hands behind his back. “Welcome aboard, Captain Pike.” 

“Permission to come aboard, Captain Saru.” Chris’s greeting made Saru blink but he recovered quickly. 

“Permission granted.” A pause and then, “Might I say, Captain.... it’s a pleasure to see you again.” 

Chris’s lips twitched. “Believe me, Captain, the pleasure is all mine.” His eyes landed on Michael then, warm and knowing and Michael felt a swirl of something pleasant begin low in her stomach. Beside her, Tilly bounced on the balls of her feet. 

“Since I imagine you’ll be staying with us for a while, I’ve taken the liberty of assigning to you your old quarters... I hope you will find them sufficient?” Chris merely inclined his head in response and Saru nodded. “Very good. Doctor, if I might have a word?” 

With that, he and Culber moved away, leaving Michael standing in between Chris and Tilly. Tilly’s head swivelled between them once, twice, three times, before her eyes widened comically. “And I am going to go. And be elsewhere. Somewhere that is not here. For a long time, I think.” She nodded firmly. “Yes. That is what I will do.”

Another firm nod and she was gone, leaving Michael standing in front of Chris, who wasn’t even trying to hide his smile. “Subtle,” he drawled and Michael shrugged. 

“That actually was.” Michael wasn’t actually making it up and Chris’s eyebrows quirked up in surprise. Which was to be expected, Michael supposed. After all, they’d been gone for a long time as far as he was concerned and Chris hadn’t been their commanding officer for a huge amount of time. “You may not remember-” she began, stomach twisting in a way that wasn’t entirely pleasant. 

“Michael.” Chris’s hand closed over her elbow, warm and sure as his eyes on hers. “I remember everything.” 

There was no biological reason, Michael knew, why such a quiet, simple pronouncement should have her blood singing, send her knees weak. And yet, that was exactly what happened. “Except...” Chris kept his voice low but his eyes were dancing as he leaned in closer. “I can’t quite seem to remember the way to my quarters... would you care to accompany me?” 

The smile that broke over her lips was unbecoming of her Vulcan upbringing. Michael didn’t care one bit. “I would love to.” 

The journey from Sickbay to Chris’s quarters encompassed several corridors and a ride on the turbolift where, as it was the middle of the Discovery’s “day” they were the recipients of several second glances and double takes, as well as enough knowing smiles to let them both know that ship scuttlebutt had informed more than Tilly of Michael’s actions. They walked in silence, side by side, hands behind their backs and that last until the doors swept shut behind them and they were finally, blessedly, alone. 

Chris’s eyes swept over the room and he shook his head. “Hasn’t changed a bit.” He tilted his head, something occuring to him. “How long...” 

Then he looked down at her, their eyes meeting, holding and she saw the exact moment that it registered with him. That they were alone, together, with no-one coming to disturb them. 

“You know something? It can wait.” 

He reached for her then, hunger in his gaze that she knew was matched in hers and their lips met in a kiss unlike either of the previous kisses they had shared. The first had been born in the desperation of goodbye, the second in the desperation of a new beginning. 

This, their third kiss? 

Was simply born of desperation, of a need to be as close to the other person as humanly possible. His hands were on her cheeks, hers winding through his hair, their lips moving against each other as they stumbled their way towards the bedroom. 

Michael had had a long time to imagine what being with Chris would be like, had imagined it more times than she would ever admit to anyone, even Tilly. Especially Tilly. The reality, she reflected afterwards as she lay with her head pillowed on his chest, was even better than she’d dared hope. In that, as in all things, they appeared to be simpatico, because as his fingers traced idle patterns on her back, she heard him murmur, “I’m glad we never did that back then.” 

Michael tipped her head back just enough to look up at him and frown. He caught the look, gave her a smile in return. “Because if I’d known it would be like that... I never would have let you go through that wormhole.” 

Michael wanted to smile, so she did. She wanted to press her body closer to him and kiss him, so she did that too. “Then I think we should make up for lost time,” she told him. 

“With Hot Captain Sex?” His eyes danced as he said the words, and he laughed outright at the look on her face. 

“You heard that?” 

He shrugged as he rolled over onto his back, pulling her on top of him. “I can read lips,” he told her. “You’d be amazed how it can come in handy.” 

Michael grinned as she lowered her face towards his. “Then read mine.” 

And he did.


End file.
